Twitter As A Source Of Promotion

Twitter as a form of promotion from enosd1

The Use Of Facebook As A Promotion Source

MAGAZINE ADVERT: Final Product

MAGAZINE ADVERT: Initial Idea and Audience Feedback

This is our initial concept for the magazine advert that we hope will promote our digipak. We based the layout of this magazine advert on the existing magazine advert for the highly successful album Who You Are by Jessie J.

We decided to use this format as we felt that its simplicity made it stand out and it is straight to the point. It outlines the important facts that a reader may need to know without making them stop for too long whilst flicking through a magazine. We also included her website and a logo that says "available on iTunes" so readers would know how to purchase the album if they prefer digital copies as well as logos for social networking sites that readers can follow Tyler Noel on.

A second magazine advert that I created features the album cover at the bottom and has a large image of the artist as the main focus of the product. This is so readers who are quickly flicking through a magazine can recognise her face from the music video and become intrigued as to what the advert could be promoting. It also includes the phrase "OUT NOW" in captials to create excitement over the release of this album. Similarly, the logos of various social networking sites are also featured to bring the audience closer to the artist.

When we showed potential audience members our two initial ideas, they claimed that they were too plain and did not give them a good enough idea of the quality of the album: "there's not enough information to make me want to go and buy this album." Some audience members suggested that "maybe some reviews would make readers feel compelled to buy it" as they would feel assured that this product is of high quality and will not be a waste of money. They also felt that "the artist's name and the album title should be bolder" so readers know what to look out for in music shops. However, they felt that the layout of the second magazine advert was more "exciting" as it was a bit "unconventional" to include a large image of the artist which is not featured on the album cover. We took these critiques on board when creating our final product by using the layout of the second magazine advert, including reviews and making the artist's name and album title stand out.

DIGIPAK: Final Product

After creating the front and back covers of the digipak, we then went on to design the inside panels, lyric booklet cover and disc. This is our final digipak template: 

The cover of the lyric booklet ties into the cover of the digipak in order to link the whole package together. The two images on the inside panels have contrasting tones in order to depict the range of emotions Tyler Noel feels in the songs which are featured in the album. The image of a theatre on the disc symbolises the dramatic nature of Noel's life as described through her music

We showed members of our target audience this template and asked their opinion on whether or not they understood the concept of the album through these images. They agreed that the inside panels clearly symbolised a range in emotions and were able to predict what the content of the album would be like. 

DIGIPAK: Final Back

This is our final version of the back of the Digipak. We feel this is this links with the whole vibe and RnB genre due most songs being about relationships. We have included the conventional content on the back with the barcode, production information, logo of production company and tracklisting.

DIGIPAK: Front Cover

As our digipak is to be used for an entire album rather than just for Tyler Noel's single, If You Wanna Leave, we visited her Soundcloud page in order to gain inspiration for a potential album title. 

Some potential titles included: Remedy, More Than Friends and I Can Do Better. After deliberating within our group and asking members of our target audience for their opinions, we realised that More Than Friends was the favourite and thus the smartest choice for the album. We then substituted this new title onto our existing digipak cover to create our final image:

DIGIPAK: Audience and Artist Feedback

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

Before moving on to creating alternate versions of the digipak cover, we asked people within our target audience of 15 - 30 year olds which they believed to be more suitable for the single after having heard the song. The majority of audience members stated that the second digipak cover would be better suited to the single as it gives us a clearer concept of the song's content. As Tyler Noel is an unsigned artist, it is to be expected that most people do not know who she is. Therefore, promoting her image is important as it is her image that people will recognise as she releases more music. Our issue with the pixelation of the picture was not mentioned by the audience; once we had pointed it out, our audience members said that is was unnoticeable.

ARTIST FEEDBACK

After asking representatives of our demographic for their preferences, we then approached the song's original artist - Tyler Noel - for her opinion. Not only did we send her the main two mock ups that were shown to our target audience, but an additional third cover which also features an image of the performer in the music video. She agreed with our target audience's opinion and stated that the second digipak cover would be the most suitable cover for her single's digipak.

DIGIPAK: Initial Ideas

 From our research on existing digipak covers, we noticed some trends which we bore in mind while we were creating our own. 

One of which was the simplistic approach: artists such as Beyoncé and Daft Punk used no images on the front cover of their albums Beyoncé and Discovery. The simplistic nature of these covers made the music the main focus without distracting the audiences with any extravagant aesthetics.

Another common convention with digipak covers is featuring the artist's image as the key focus of the cover. This is evident in Rihanna's cover for her album Talk That Talk as well as Chris Brown's cover for X. This is done as these artists' image are as famous as their music and can help with record sales as a means of promotion. Audiences can recognise the artist easily and are more willing to buy their albums as they trust that they will produce good music.

INITIAL IDEA #1

We based our first initial idea on the simplistic convention.This cover features only the name of the artist and the single as the quality of the song is all that is needed to persuade consumers to buy it. However, we were still able to convey the tone of the song through the image in case some people have not yet heard it. The image is bold and simple which replicates the message of the song. Tyler Noel's ultimatum is simple yet presents her as bold and strong enough to take charge of the relationship's future. The fact that her name is written in red supports this idea as this colour has connotations of both warning signs and passion - she is a loving woman but can also be powerful when she needs to be. 

INITIAL IDEA #2

Our second concept is based on the convention of album covers featuring the image of the artist. In a similar fashion to that of Rihanna's edgy expression on the cover of Talk That Talk or Trey Songz's soulful expression on the front of the Inevitable digipak, the image of the character of Noel has a facial expression that hints at the tone of the song. Her frustrated, hurt expression gives audiences an idea of what the song is about in case they have not heard it. The presence of  male figure in the background also gives the audience an idea of the song's topic; however, his back is to the camera so he is not the main focus and does not distract from the artist's image. We came across an issue when taking the photo as the strength of the sunlight made it difficult for us to see what we were taking a photo of. We attempted to fix the issue by covering the screen so the sun would not reflect off it as much but once we imported it onto the computer, we realised that the image was highly pixelated. This initially deterred us from using the image but after altering it on Photoshop, the image improved significantly and we felt it was usable.

MUSIC VIDEO: Final Cut

MUSIC VIDEO: Rough Cut

Raw footage No.1

This is one of the clips we recorded for the music video. This is raw footage so has not been touched at all.

This clip was going to be used to demonstrate the good times that the couple were having together before the male antagonists begins to behaviour in a manner than is not healthy to the relationship. He does this by answering the phone while they are together and it is one of the girls that likes him - his 'fan club'.

Pros:
This shot was able to show what we wanted it to show
- An overheard shot to show that the female protagonist was there and the natural feeling in the conversation with her natural movements and the male antagonist in the shot.
- The shot takes into consideration the rule of thirds, with the male protagonist in the left centre line as he is the main focus of the shot
- The performance of the artist was also good with him smiling a lot which was what we wanted

Cons
- The lighting of the shot was too dark which made it hard to see the male protagonist properly
- The female protagonists head could of been more in the shot but due restrictions of movement as location was next to a wall made it inaccessible to reach the desired position.

Audience feedback

Magazine Advert Research

Mags ads from Mikeslondon

Prop List & Reasons For Use

PLANNING: Timeline

MONDAY 27 OCTOBER

LOCATION: Richmond - Little Green

ACTORS: Niyat

SHOTS: performance shots (park and theatre)

PROPS: none

WEDNESDAY 29 OCTOBER

LOCATION: Richmond - Little Green and along the river

ACTORS: Niyat and Christian

SHOTS: negative and positive flashbacks

PROPS: none

FRIDAY 31 OCTOBER

LOCATION: Kingston - Bentall's Centre (Costa)

ACTORS: Niyat and Christian

SHOTS: negative flashbacks

PROPS: phone and hot drinks

SATURDAY 1 NOVEMBER

LOCATION: Niyat's house

ACTORS: Niyat

SHOTS: bedroom performance shots

PROPS: bed and mirror

TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER

LOCATION: Gunnersbury Catholic School

ACTORS: Christian and extras

SHOTS: negative flashback of poker game

PROPS: phone, cards, poker chips

RESEARCH: Music video analysis

PLANNING: Casting

PROTAGONIST (Tyler Noel)

Stephanie Girgis:

- 19 years old

- Olive skinned

- Petite

Niyat Tesfamariam:

- 18 years old

- Black

- Average size 

Due to availability and scheduling issues, I was cast as the protagonist. This was more convenient because, as a part of this media group, I was always available on the set of the video shoot. This also meant that I was already familiar with the video's concept and the lyrics.

ANTAGONIST (love interest)

Christian Kalialia:

- 19 years old

- Black

- Tall yet toned

Andy Williams:

- 19 years old

- Black

- Strong build

Christian Kalialia was cast due to his flexible schedule and also his tall figure would make him seem more intimidating towards the protagonist,.This explains why Tyler Noel had not left him before the point in her life at which she decided to finally pluck up the courage and present him with this ultimatum.

PLANNING: Costume and Make Up

PLANNING: Locations

Locations from Mikeslondon

PLANNING: Animatic

PLANNING: Storyboard

PERFORMANCE SHOTS

FLASHBACKS

PLANNING: Actors wanted

This was the poster designed to advertise to get actors wanted for our music video.

PLANNING: Shot List

Day: Monday 27^th October

Locations: Richmond Green

Shots:

Performance shots

-          Walking down the long path (close up)

-          Singing on bench (medium shot)

-          Photoshoot

Narrative:

-          Actors laughing on the bench (medium wide shot)

Day: Thursday 30^th October

Locations: Richmond River

Shots:

Narrative shots:

-          Walking down the path (long shot)

-          Photoshoot

Day: Friday 31^st October

Location: Kingston – Bentall centre

Shots:

Narrative shots

-          Boys chilling together (Medium wide shot)

-          Chilling together (over the shoulder shot)

-          Chilling together (medium wide shot)

Day: Sunday 2^nd November

Location: Niyats house

Shots:

Performance shots

-          Sitting on a bed (long shot)

-          Mirror (over the shoulder, medium shot)

-          Singing (Close up)

Day: Tuesday 4^th November

Locations:  Small room with table

Shots:

Narrative shots:

-          Phone receiving messages (close up)

-          Poker chips (Close up)

-          Everyone at the table (medium wide shot)

-          Shot of protagonist (over the shoulder shot) 

PLANNING: Audience Profile

As Tyler Noel's song, If You Wanna Leave, is an R&B song, I initially looked at the target audience of this genre. Common audiences are often between the ages of 13 - 25 due to the explicit language and mature subject matter that R&B music sometimes has, such as Boyz II Men's I'll Make Love to You and Beyonce's Rocket.

I then took to Twitter to look directly at Tyler Noel's existing audience by finding out what kind of social groups are present in her list of followers. I found many young, black men and women as well as a few mature, white men. As her white male followers are significantly a minority, I decided that the target audience for our music video would be 13 - 25 year old black women. This idea was also supported by the subject matter of the song which promotes the empowerment of women. 

I then looked at Tyler Noel's Facebook page to support my findings on her existing fan base. A feature on the Facebook app is the ability to see a generalisation of the people who 'like' her page. What I found through finding this out is that her fan base is similar to that of the R&B genre. However, her fan base ranges to a much older age than the generic genre which emphasises the mature tone and subject matter of her music. I took thois new information on board in order to change my opinion on who Tyler Noel's target audience would be - I pushed the age range up to 15 - 35 year olds in order to incorporate her existing audience. I also took into consideration similar artists to Tyler Noel such as Mary J Blige as this would give me an idea as to who would be interested in her music.

I looked at Mary J Blige's Twitter page in order to find out what kind of people are interested in her music as this could strengthen my idea of what Tyler Noel's audience could be. I found that her audience is very similar to that of Noel as I found many young, black women in her list of followers as well as some older women and some girls of other nationalities. However, the audience that I felt would be our target demographic - black women aged 15 to 35 - was the most significant social group within this list.

Budget Britney

PLANNING: Lyric analysis

Tyler noel if you wanna leave lyrics - lyric analysis from Mikeslondon

PLANNING: Permission to use song

We emailed Tyler Noel to get permission to use her song. 

This is the response we got from Tyler Noel allowing us to use her song.

Main Pitch Feedback

Main Pitch Powerpoint

Main Pitch for Music Video

PLANNING: Similar Artists

Similar artists from Mikeslondon

PLANNING: Artist Research

Artist Research - Tyler Noel from niyattesfamariam

Initial Ideas: Music Shortlist

After brainstorming our ideas of what artists we were considering to use for the making of our music video, we narrowed it down to three unsigned artists, each with a song we would like to use.

1. Hustle and Finesse by Jizzle

https://soundcloud.com/goldenchild772/jizzle-hustle-n-finesse

2. Only The Lonely by Courtney Bennett

https://soundcloud.com/ryanleslie123/07-only-the-lonely-ft-courtney

3. If You Wanna Leave by Tyler Noel

https://soundcloud.com/tylernoel/if-you-wanna-leave

RESEARCH: Magazine Adverts

Research into Magazine Adverts

RESEARCH: Digipaks

RESEARCH: Digipaks from niyattesfamariam

Digipak Analysis

Digipak from enosd1

Research into the R&B Genre

R&B from enosd1

Rock Genre Research

Hip-Hop Research

RESEARCH: Music Videos

RESEARCH: THREE digipak analysis

3 digipak research from Mikeslondon

Music Video Analysis

Welcome

Niyat Tesfamariam

Candidate Number: 9097

Michael Nwankwo

Candidate Number: 9093

Daniel Enos

Candidate Number: 9090